I work at an airline as a pilot and I am involved in the "paperless" project which aims to have no more paper in the cockpit - all the data should be accessible from tablet devices.

We have a lot to read during flights (checklists, rules and regulations, maps and so on). We will have special screens (size of about an iPad) but with a higher resolution (1280x1024).

What's the best color combination considering night/day conditions? And what's the best font to read on screen?

Please also include sources to your answers (studies or similar)

EDIT:

Factors

Legibility * in various conditions from bright sunlight to complete darkness

Retention * as there will be no more books, pilots are forced to learn at their home computers (ev. bad lighting, bad monitors)

Aesthetics * is not really a factor, but in my opinion needed to meet the users expectations

Personal

My personal history shows that I work mostly with classic black on white contrasts (as a developer and as a consumer). We already have a software product which allows the pilots to switch to "night-mode" which inverts the most colors, however almost nobody uses the feature. The reason why I don't switch to the "night" mode is mainly because we can dim our device perfectly so there is almost no glow which distracts us during flight and we have the cockpit lights on during cruise.

Airline Industry

Airbus Industries started to ship their electronic software with the default setting set to white on black (with the option to switch). I ask myself if they did it only to be conform with the cockpit displays (CRT/LCD mixed, only white on black)?

Lufthansa Systems has a complete system which is by default black on white. I am not aware of an option to switch it into night mode in general, except the navigation maps.

Web Industry

Personally I think it's important to have an eye on the web industry, as by today almost everyone is involved. We read, write and learn in the web - and it's mostly black on white. This could be the reason why most people think white on black is odd and won't use it if made availbe as an option, because it's not a common standard. So why should we force the user to white on black?

Current Choice

The current choice would be Tahoma 12pt, #222 on #fff with the option for #fff on #000 according to Michael Zuschlag's answer and references.

For indoor web use you might get away with any reasonably dark-and-light color combination. However, considering the possibly harsh and highly variable viewing environment of the cockpit, (e.g., totally dark night to low sun shining directly on the display), you probably want go with black and white.

I believe whether black-on-white or white-on-black is better depends on the font design. Most fonts for personal computers are designed for dark-on-light presentation. If you’re using “regular” computer fonts, you probably should go with black-on-white. However, depending on the performance of your device when dimmed, you might want to consider white-on-black for night mode to maximize visibility of everything else the pilot needs to see. See answers for White font on black background.

The relation between font and readability is complicated, but you’re probably safe going with a “normal” font like Tahoma or Times New Roman. See:

If you decide to only have black and white, consider having a true black and white screen rather than a color screen. You will get better resolution and contrast.
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MartFeb 1 '11 at 8:43

1

Top answer. As you are already suggesting - black on white seems the best solution, whereas we will give the users the solution to switch to white on black (also for night mode). What about the new pattern to use #222 instead of #000? What do you think about this? It's a detail, but still it seems to get more and more popular. Stackexchange for example uses #444 and according to Hall RH & Hanna H 2004 this should be no problem as readability will not be reduced until you reach a certain threshold. On the other side: what's the benefit?
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WolkenjaegerFeb 1 '11 at 10:05

I would slightly modify this to say to have slightly off black on top of slightly off white. Pure black on white produces too high a level of contrast which leads to eye strain and can make things more difficult if anyone has dyslexia (nothing to stop dyslexics from being pilots in theory I would assume, particularly given the large number of moderate dylsexics out there who never get diagnosed)
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the other oneDec 17 '14 at 14:35

Black text on a white background yields the best legibility, since the bright glow from the background causes your pupils to contract. It's easier to focus your eye with a smaller pupil (much like the depth of field is increased with a smaller camera lens), and it reduces the effect of refractive errors in the eye.

For situations where you don't want to destroy your night vision, a dark background and red or amber text is most comfortable.

Personally I dislike high contrasts with light text on a dark background, so I use colors like 'wheat' on 'dark slate gray'. For dark text on a light background, I find a warmer color is more relaxing. Many e-book readers and text editors use an off-white yellowish tint to good effect.

note that one study found that green was better than red for reading in with dark adapted or night vision as it needs less photons for green light than red for the eye to register i.e. a green on black would work great but for day light black on white with a bright and sharp screen works better even
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Dan D.Feb 11 '11 at 20:27

3

Would be great to have a source of the study. Sounds interesting.
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WolkenjaegerFeb 12 '13 at 9:01

I've been working in a project called eAdept (www.eadept.se) with an application for screens on mobile phones for users that are visually impaired. We've been trying different combination, both indoors and outdoors to find find out what's best for these persons. We've also been talking to, for example specialists and supervisors to visually imapired to get a good explanation of the interaction between differens colors. The result of all these test and information is a combination of yellow and black. We've been using #F8EF20 for the yellow one and also some darker and lighter versions. Maybe a combination like that can work in a cookpit.

Colors aside, you might also be interested in the typeface test report conducted by the International Institute of Information Design regarding the evaluation of the new ‘Tern’ typeface: www.iiid.net/SOMS/InSafety_IVT_Report_Final.pdf (The requirements for road traffic signs should be nearly identical to those for your context of use.)

Well I'm not an avid book reader, but I am a programmer and I look at text all day.

For me text is a tool. I started programming with notepad black and white and it really wasn't all that great.

Today my workshop looks like this.

This is highly tailored to my preferences. In low light environments I strongly prefer light on dark, and I suspect most others do as well. The iphone's maps as well as tom-toms seem to embrace this in their UX where they automatically switch over to a different color theme at night. I'm not a scientist, I don't know how that works. I just know that I like that they do that.

It could be different for light emitting screens vs light reflecting surfaces, such as a monitor vs an eInk screen. I love eInk and always prefer to read in well lit environment with either eInk or paperback. When staring at a monitor all day however, especially in a low light environment, light on dark all the way.

I find dark on light from a light emitting screen especially harsh on the eyes in the morning before I'm really awake.

Getting back to my code example, code is highly structured and there is a correct way to interpret what you are reading. Even still, color assists greatly in comprehension. When reading a book, how many times have you had to go back to refresh your memory of the context of what was written, or the perspective from which it was written? These are some areas where I think color can greatly assist. Just something to think about.